Media coverage of COVID-19 state surveillance in Israel: the securitization and militarization of a civil-medical crisis

Israel, traditionally known as a nation-in-arms, has been undergoing processes of securitization and militarization from its inception to the present day. While several countries have employed surveillance technologies to tackle the spread of coronavirus, Israel was the only country in the world to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Media, culture & society culture & society, 2022-04, Vol.44 (3), p.445-463
Main Authors: Marciano, Avi, Yadlin, Aya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Crises
Demilitarization
Democratization
Media coverage
Medicine
Militarization
National security
News media
Securitization
Sociocultural factors
Surveillance
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Summary:Israel, traditionally known as a nation-in-arms, has been undergoing processes of securitization and militarization from its inception to the present day. While several countries have employed surveillance technologies to tackle the spread of coronavirus, Israel was the only country in the world to authorize its internal security agency to track citizens’ cellphones to deal with this civil-medical crisis. Employing a reflexive thematic analysis to news media outlets, this study examined coverage of Israel Security Agency (ISA) surveillance by four leading Israeli news sites, inquiring into the socio-cultural imageries, and motifs that informed their reports. While two of the sites were mostly supportive and the other two were critical, the coverage as a whole was informed by national security imageries reminiscent of Israel’s nation-in-arms tradition. Our discussion contextualizes these findings within a three-decade tension that has prevailed in Israeli society and culture between securitization/militarization and democratization/demilitarization.
ISSN:0163-4437
1460-3675
DOI:10.1177/01634437211037008